The most explosive and far-reaching news story of the year has nothing to do with underage pages and a certain Republican ex-Congressman.

This story involves ignition in the streets of Baghdad and six immolations that probably never occurred. While Mark Foley took down a congressional majority, the tale of Jamil Hussein may end up permanently damaging the credibility of the world's premier news gathering source, the Associate Press...

The story begins on Nov. 24 when Qais al-Bashir, an Iraqi "stringer" working for the AP, wrote a story in which he alleged that Shiite militiamen avenging earlier attacks burned down four Sunni mosques in Baghdad and that during this rampage, they burned six Sunni civilians alive.

Many news outlets seized upon this incendiary report, and soon it was appearing on front pages worldwide. The two sources for this story were Iraqi police Captain Jamil Hussein and a former member of Saddam Hussein's secret police who is now an imam.

Shortly after the story was published, U.S. Central Command and the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior sent units to the neighborhood where the attacks were said to have taken place. They found no bodies, no other witnesses who would corroborate the story and only one lightly damaged mosque.

Perplexed, they questioned the local "imam." He quickly recanted his story. So the ministry went looking for Jamil Hussein and discovered that no one by that name is employed by the Iraqi police.

Junkyard Blog has documented 51 AP stories relying on the phony "Jamil Hussein." Michelle Malkin has researched an additional 10 more faked AP Iraq stories relying on Jamil the Phantom, for a total of 61 AP propaganda pieces designed to demoralize and deceive.

Watched the O'Reilly Special on His Visit to Iraq....Just excellent....two big themes.....Iran has a big hand in training many of the Shia Militia who are killing our soldiers....and the Press is only reporting the Bad Stuff and practically none of the Good stuff that is being done....

I read somewhere that the guy's name is actually JamAil Hussein and someone who formerly worked for Pajamas Media found him. I don't remember/know if that's true or not.

Welcome to Free Republic. Marc Dansiger was a cofounder of Pajamas Media. Where in the world is AP's source for some 60 stories? Eason Jordan will "search" for him, but Eason Jordan lied to conceal Saddam Hussein's brutality to preserve CNN's access to Baghdad, hence couldn't find his credibility with an air-ground search.

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